Kylie learns to ride!

We picked up a used princess bike for $5 and so far, it has been the best purchase of the year.  Kylie was so excited to get a bike and to learn to ride.  After we got it, she would ask every morning, "Daddy teach me to ride my bike today?"  It was longest two weeks of her life! (Chris was busy with finals and we waited for a sunshiny day.)  Kylie learned quickly and it was an instant new love of hers.  She now rides her bike whenever possible.

For the grandparents who are far away, here is a video of Kylie's very first try on her bike....ending with a short clip of when she is pro....a mere couple days later.

I almost cried watching Kylie ride all by herself for the first time.  She is getting so grown up!  I may be silly, but this seems like such a big milestone!  (Yes, I know she has the training wheels on.)  Anyway, it is fun to go on walks now with Ellie in the stroller and Kylie riding her bike.  It is going to be a fun summer!

Hooray for Easter!

 

Kylie was really excited for Easter this year.  But I think I was even more excited (or should I say egg-cited?)  And it proved to be a wonderful one, just as we both had anticipated.  We had 12 people around our dinner table Sunday (including the two little girls).  It was fun to have mine and Chris's siblings over plus their significant others.  Per tradition, we had an Easter egg hunt in our little yard before dinner.  It was a toss up for who was more psyched for the candy....Kylie or Chandra.  He he.  Dinner was great and so were our desserts.  Chris also gave a little lesson to conclude our wonderful day.  Here are some pictures of the girls.  I regret now that I didn't get a group shot! 

 

Ellie's first Easter egg hunt!

 

 

Kylie eating her first find.  

 

It was a little melted.

 

So, these are the first dresses that I have made the girls!  I am actually super proud of them.  I have been wanting to try to make a dress for a while now, so I was glad we didn't have any Easter dresses for this year. :)  I thought they turned out really well for my first real clothing sewing project.  There were a few stumbles along the way, but for the most part, I enjoyed it, especially since there was no pattern (I hate patterns).  I used this tutorial as my guide.  The girls wore white cardigans to church, which was cute too, but it was quite warm during our hunt!  Kylie and Ellie sure looked adorable.  Don't ya think?

Brooke and Mike's Wedding

Well Mom, here are some pictures.....finally!

Brooke and Mike were married in the Las Vegas Temple February 11th.  It was a beautiful day and we loved being a part of it!  We are so excited for them.  Here are some pictures of the special event

 

 

  

 

Congrats (again) Brooke and Mike!  We love you lots!

Who You Are - Hilary Weeks

Tonight we had a stake Relief Society dinner and presentation by Hilary Weeks.  I was of course excited to go just for a little time with other women and to hear Hilary sing.  But I did not expect that I would leave so uplifted.  It was something that I desperately needed.  (Thank you Chris for re-arranging your night so I could go!)  Hilary spoke mostly on the power of our thoughts and how identifying our positive thoughts and increasing the number of positive thoughts we have on a daily basis can change us.  Lately, I have felt burdened by the amount of seemingly meaningless tasks that I spend my day doing...dishes, cooking, cleaning, laundry, picking up toys....  I wish I could spend all day teaching and playing with my children and working on projects to beautify our home and our lives.  But often, at the end of the day, I feel that I didn't accomplish much.  Since chores seem to be an inevitable part of motherhood, I have been trying to  find some kind of joy in those tasks I do for my family. 

Anyway, tonight's message was renewing.  It strengthened me.  So, I thought that I would share the last song that she sang for us, "Who You Are".  I thought she had written it for me.  (This is a new song, so she doesn't have a video for it yet.  The video below is just one I found on YouTube.  You don't have to watch it, but definitely listen to it.  Though some of the pictures I could relate to!  I contemplated making my own slide show with pictures, but then I thought, "With what spare time?"  Maybe I will in the future.)

“I know you wonder if you’ll ever have a day where the kids stay calm, the laundry’s done and the dishes are put away.  And sometimes you feel like your days are spent and gone and the question running through your mind is, “What have I gotten done?”

And when you finally have a moment to slow down at the end of your day, I know that Father would say,

‘Believe in what you’re doing.  Believe in who you are.  And hold tight to the truth that you’re a daughter of God.  Believe in who you’re becoming.  Believe in who you are.’ 

It may seem simple all the little things you do, but the lives you touch matter so much.  And there’s no one else like you.   And Father needs you to stand tall and faithful.  To be all you can be.  Oh, if you could see what he sees, you’d believe in what you are doing. And you’d believe in who you are.  So hold tight to the truth that you are a daughter of God.  Believe in who you’re becoming, believe in who you are. 

When it’s hard to believe in yourself and you feel that you are beginning to doubt, remember, He believes in what you’re doing. And He believes in who you are.  So don’t lose sight of the truth that you’re a daughter of God.  That He believes in who you’re becoming.  He believes in who you are.”

Spring Skiing

Skiing with Chris was one of the best days of the year so far!  We headed up to Brighton yesterday with my sisters to get a few hours of skiing in.  This was the second time Chris went skiing with me this season...yes he loves me a lot!  But it also took a lot of convincing. :)  It was so fun to spend some alone time together....  and Chris admitted that he even enjoyed it (the skiing that is...he always enjoys spending alone time with me!)  For spring skiing, it was pretty nice if you kept to the groomed stuff, but by the time we were leaving at 2pm, it was getting pretty slushy.  All in al,l it was a wonderful day.

 

My proof that Chris indeed went skiing.

 

The typical lift ride picture!  I enjoyed the amount of uninterrupted talk time we got. :)

The girls had a fun day as well.  Nicole and Josh watched them in the morning and the Casey in the afternoon.  When we got home, Kylie went on and on about all the fun things they did.  As I was getting things ready to go yesterday, the girls were playing in their room.  They had been quiet for a little while, so I went to check on them, half expecting all the clothes out of the dressers again, but this is what I saw....

 

  

It was so cute to see them both sitting quietly, reading their own books.  Lately, Ellie has started to take a real interest to books.  She likes to pull them off the shelf and then bring one to me to read to her as she sits on my lap.  The only problem now is the whole sharing my lap and taking turns picking the books.  Ellie of course doesn't have the attention span for a whole book and Kylie needs me to read each page.  We are still working on figuring this all out. :)

Kylie's lipstick

So Kylie found some of GG's lipstick in her bathroom.....I don't need to say anything else. 

 

I guess she wanted her face and hands to match her dress!  This was the first time she has ever done anything like this...and it was kind-of funny.  She even gave Momma Bear some hot pink lips.  And by some miracle, she didn't get any lipstick anywhere else.

Chris's mom was in town for a day and the girls were very excited to play with her.  We decided to check out Jump Around Town, this new place that has a couple of bounce houses, blowup slides and a bounce pillow (which was pretty fun for all of us). Kylie loved chasing Daddy and Grandma (and being chased) and Ellie loved the bounce pillow.  I was surprised at how well she walked and bounced on it.  What good balance she has!

 

Grandma and Ellie

 

All tuckered out...and wanting a snack.

 

Kylie pretending to be asleep so she doesn't have to go.

And the winner is....

Thanks for playing the who's who challenge!  It was fun for me and hopefully for you too.  Everybody did super, but only two got a perfect score.  And the winners are.....Pa Bunker and Chandra & Josh!  Congrats, your prizes will be arriving shortly. :)  2nd place was another tie...Nicole and Gma Bunker & Ben.  3rd place....Gma Abe and 4th place...Gma and Gpa Jensen.  Yeah!

I have labeled the girls' pictures if you want to have a look-see...maybe to see which ones you mixed up. :) http://bunkerfamilysnapshots.blogspot.com/2012/02/whos-who.html

I know everyone has been dying to see pictures of the girls in Brooke's and Nicole's weddings.  Chris seriously hasn't even had time to sit down to look at any of them.  He currently is in L.A. with the photography department right now.  They are meeting with lots of photographers there, touring studios and learning more about the photography industry/ business.  He gets home Sunday and I think I will make him find a couple of pics of the girls so I can post them!

We have been trying to stay busy without Chris around this week.  Having full reign of the car has been nice, but I must say it is a lot nicer (and more fun) to have Daddy home!

 

BYU's dinosaur museum.  Kylie loved the triceratops the best.  She kept giving the little one (aka Sarah from The Land Before Time) a hug.  "She's my friend Mommy."  Kylie also told me, "I don't want to meet a T-Rex."  Me either!  Of course right after we got done with the dinosaur museum, Kylie wanted to go to the animal museum!  Too bad it was nap time, but we did end up going there later....it was definitely a day centered around what Kylie wanted to do!

 

At Chucky Cheese.  I told Kylie that we could go to play for a little while if she was good while I ran a couple errands.  The girls did a couple rides/games, but mostly just ran around.  Kylie enjoyed the play area and Ellie liked playing/banging on all the lights of the arcade games. 

 

Just playing at home.  Isn't it a wonderful sight when your kids are actually playing nicely together, without any refereeing on mom's part?  Pure joy.  Kylie was being so cute while making "lunch" for Ellie.

 

And Kylie dressing up with all her jewelry. 

"What's inside a tape, Mommy?"

Well, earlier this week, the girls found out what was inside a cassette tape.  So cool!  Unfortunately it was a Scripture Scout tape and fortunately it wasn't one of Kylie's favorites.  Who knows who started it (well I know who got it out of the tape deck), but when Kylie came running out of the bedroom saying, "Uh-oh Mommy, Look!" it was already too late.  There was 20 feet of the tape already out and a tear in it as well.  Since the tape was already ruined, I let the girls continue to play with it.  They had fun pulling it all out and then tangling (and untangling) themselves in the smooth tape.  Why is destruction so much fun?

 

  

Faces

Chris took some pictures of Kylie for a school assignment that was supposed to be on someone close to you.  He had his work cut out for him while trying to take pictures of some of her things.  For example, as soon as he got her princess dresses out to get a photograph, she all of a sudden "needed!" to wear them... both of them.  Anyway, I thought I would post the pictures he turned in.  And yes, everyone in Chris's class liked Kylie's funny faces.

 

 

 

 

Who's Who?

I thought it would be fun to have a little competition for the family, and friends...whoever wants to play.  It is a who's who quiz of baby pictures of Kylie and Ellie.  The two girls looked very different at birth, but as Ellie has grown older, she has started to look a little more like her older sister.  There are 40 pictures below, half Kylie's and half Ellie's.  I tried to get pictures of both girls at similar ages and even in the same outfits.  :)  But I tried to find ones that didn't have other people or other obvious clues as to which little girl it was, so some of the pictures are cropped tight or are black and white (because of their different eye color!)  Anyway, hope you enjoy this fun little quiz.  Oh, and there will be prizes!  Leave your answers in the comments or e-mail me at chelsaella@gmail.com.  Each picture is numbered....just put a K or an E for each number!

                                    1 Ellie                                                                      2 Kylie

                                                   3  Ellie                                                          4   Kylie
                           

                                                  5     Kylie                                                         6 Ellie

                                                 7     Kylie                                                           8 Ellie

                                               9   Kylie                                                            10 Ellie

                                       11  Ellie                                                                       12 Kylie

                                                13   Kylie                                                        14 Ellie

                                                   15   Ellie                                                      16 Kylie

                                                 17     Kylie                                                       18 Ellie

                                                19   Kylie                                                            20 Ellie

                                                 21    Ellie                                                           22 Kylie

                                              23      Ellie                                                         24 Kylie

                                                   25   Kylie                                                      26 Ellie

                                              27      Kylie                                                          28 Ellie

 

                                                  29    Ellie                                                       30 Kylie

                                                   31    Kylie                                                     32 Ellie

The last 8 aren't paired.  There are 4 of Kylie and 4 of Ellie.

  

33 Kylie

 

34 Ellie

 35 Kylie

 36 Kylie

 37 Ellie

 38 Kylie

39 Ellie

 40 Ellie

Thanks for playing!  The winner will be announced soon!